By Hays Davis

 
He didn’t call it the “Theatre of Death” tour for nothing, to be sure.  Even aside from perishing in various ways throughout the show, Alice Cooper amazed a house full of the faithful by bringing out practically every trick in his book when he unveiled a coliseum-size show in the theater-size National.

    While not exactly a young man these days, Alice put makeup and wardrobe changes to good use (as with the age-defying Kiss), and amid the various sinister onstage scenarios and props he came across the same as always:  good ol’ Alice.

    Soon after kicking off the night with “School’s Out,” the first of a string of vignettes played out, with Alice getting the guillotine for impaling a stage extra.  Under huge, hanging A-L-I-C-E letters, there was always a new visual as the band rolled from one song to another:  masked dancers, Alice on a crutch made of bones, and a parade of actors. 

    The band, not surprisingly younger than their boss, seemed to genuinely love their job, and they pounded away happily at Alice’s songs and dodged the action as the singer got himself into one spot of trouble after another.  Strangling an evil nurse landed him in a noose during “Be My Lover,” not long after getting his ticket punched via a giant syringe.

    As the set moved from “Dirty Diamonds” to “Billion Dollar Babies,” Alice grabbed necklaces from a bejeweled wagon and tossed them to the crowd.  It was at this point that he seemed particularly interesting; dropping genuinely into character, he believably came across as being sort of casually deranged. 

    It probably shocked more than one audience member when he suddenly lopped off the doll’s head with his sword to the last chord of “Billion,” then sang to it, Yorick-style, for Alice’s version of a “Hamlet” moment.  This won his demise in a version of an iron maiden.

    Alice obviously still loves his job, and plenty of longtime fans turned out, even with their children in some cases.  The singer seemed determined to give his many returning concertgoers something wildly different, and though his visual and musical set of greatest hits didn’t include a live boa, offering the chance to grab dollar bills from the tip of his sword and dancing with the deceased during “Cold Ethyl” seemed the warmest kind of warped thank-you.